Australian Laura Enever has surfed her way into the record books after stroking into a giant four-story wave in Hawaii earlier this year, the World Surf League and Guinness World Records said on Wednesday.
Enever, 31, was surfing at an outer reef on Oahu¡¯s North Shore in January when she caught a huge blue wall measured at 43.6 feet (13.3 meters), breaking the world record for the biggest wave ever paddled into by a woman.
¡°When I took off and I looked down the face and was like ¡¯Holy cow, this is the biggest wave you¡¯ve ever been on, just make it to the bottom, do not fall here at the top¡¯,¡± Enever said.
She did make it to the bottom but was quickly steamrolled by the wave and some even larger ones behind it.
¡°I came up from that wave, and there was a huge, huge wave behind that took out the whole lineup, and I just saw boards flying everywhere.
¡°That wave, I had to really go back to my training.
¡°There was actually three of them that came, so yeah, just had to stay super calm ... When I got to the inside, I was almost laughing ¡ª I just couldn¡¯t believe I¡¯d caught that wave but also escaped that crazy, huge wave behind mine.¡±
Most photographers and videographers were covering a big wave competition at nearby Waimea Bay and it was not until days later when a photographer messaged her with a picture of her ride that she realized it might be a world record.
¡°It was amazing because I¡¯d come to terms with it just being a moment I¡¯d had and even if there wasn¡¯t any photos or records of it, then I was happy with that,¡± she said.
¡°When I showed my family ¡ª I¡¯d already told them about the wave ¡ª but when I showed them, they were half mad and half proud. They were like, ¡¯Oh my goodness, you didn¡¯t tell us it was that big.¡±
Hawaii¡¯s Aaron Gold holds surfing¡¯s men¡¯s paddle record with a 19.2 meter wave he caught off Maui in 2016, while Brazil¡¯s Maya Gabeira was towed by a jet ski into a wave measuring 22.4 meters at Nazare in Portugal in 2020.
The biggest wave ever ridden was a 26.2 meter monster at Nazare, towed into by Germany¡¯s Sebastian Steudtner in 2020.
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